This week, Collective Future Fund was named as one of the organizations selected by Melinda French Gates to receive a grant as part of the next chapter of her philanthropic giving. She is committing an additional $1 billion through 2026 to support organizations working to advance women’s power and rights globally.
Collective Future Fund (CFF) is an intermediary feminist fund that brings together social justice movements, survivors, and donors to create a future free from violence.
This funding support comes at a critical moment when CFF is marking five years since its launch, in which time it has successfully developed deep movement and donor partnerships, and grown its infrastructure to become a key actor in resourcing movements to end sexual and gender-based violence. Since CFF’s grantmaking began in 2020, it has moved $27 Million in grants to more than 100 organizations in the United States and transnationally.
CFF’s grantee partner organizations center Black, Indigenous, women of color, and gender expansive people of color who are expanding safety and democracy and advancing survivor justice through programs, organizing, and policy advocacy rooted in gender justice, racial and economic justice, and healing. This grant from Melinda French Gates’ Pivotal makes visible the importance of Black, Indigenous, women of color and gender expansive survivor-led movements that are making the world safer and more equitable. Focusing on survivor leadership centers the most powerful group of people who reach beyond the worst that has happened to them to imagine a collective future that no longer relies on violence.
“In the gender-equity arena, work to end sexual violence continues to be the most overlooked and under-funded area — despite sexual violence being one of the most prevalent and harmful ways that women, girls, and gender-expansive people experience inequity. The siloing of philanthropic portfolios has often left survivor-justice organizations in precarious circumstances,” said Aleyamma Mathew, Executive Director of Collective Future Fund. “This bold commitment from Melinda French Gates provides a clear clarion call to other donors to significantly expand their investments in critical movement-building work.”
With this contribution from Melinda French Gates as a cornerstone, CFF will redouble its efforts to support the field of survivor-justice organizations and build longer-term sustainability through grantmaking and donor organizing. CFF hopes that this grant will create momentum and compel other donors to act boldly and expand their investments in critical movement-building work to end sexual and racialized violence. The urgency of the moment and attacks on women and gender-expansive people’s safety and rights globally calls for funders who are willing to meaningfully partner with and invest in movements for the long-haul.
Photo courtesy of The New York Times
